Pulitzer
Prize recipient, Daniel Golden's intriguing Spy
Schools: How The CIA, FBI, and Foreign Intelligence Secretly Exploit
America's Universities is
a comprehensive and wide-ranging overview of how universities have
been the target of foreign and domestic espionage and why it is
disturbing news for the security of the USA and democratic values.

Golden
in his opening pages informs us that the premise for his book
crystallized when he was having lunch one day with a former U.S.
Government official. When he brought up his concern that academia was
being invaded by intelligence services including that of the USA, the
official responded that both sides were involved and were exploiting
universities.

Ample,
well-documented evidence exists that there existed in the early years
of the CIA a close collaboration between it and academia, however, in
the 1960s and 1970s there was a cooling off. But, as pointed out, no
one has chronicled the resurgence of discreet U.S. Intelligence
activity that has included the trolling for recruits at various
institutions of higher learning or at conferences or referrals made
to it by professors for agency employment. Insofar as foreign
services are concerned, Golden states that their cyber-espionage
against U.S. Corporations and government targets, has overshadowed
their use of student and faculty compatriots to acquire information,
contacts, and sensitive research at these at American universities.
With this in mind Golden explores and examines why intelligence
services are targeting American universities and what are the
implications for national security and academic freedom.

Divided
into two parts, the book first delves into the infiltration of
foreign espionage at American universities and in the second part we
learn about the CIA and how it stages academic conferences for the
purpose of luring scientists in Iran's nuclear weapons program to
defect. Some of the other topics include how CIA officers enroll as
undercover agents in Harvard's mid-career and executive education
programs for the purpose of cultivating unsuspecting foreign
officials. Golden also explores how foreign exchange students as well
as professors from China are recruited by their government to carry
on espionage activities in the USA and we also learn about
affiliations between Chinese spy schools and US universities.

Golden
points out that all of these activities have taken on a disquieting
real-world dimension as a front line for espionage. “Intelligence,
which in academia used to refer to brainpower, increasingly means
information and knowledge about the adversary.” I guess you can sum
this up with the old adage, “knowledge is power.” Espionage is
taking place from China, Russia, Cuba and other countries in the
labs, classrooms, auditoriums that seek insights into U.S. Policy,
recruits for clandestine operations and access to sensitive military
and civilian research. And not to be left behind, the CIA and the FBI
likewise engage in similar practices wherein they develop sources
among international students and faculty.

An
interesting revelation made by Golden in the Acknowledgments
of the book is that it he would not have been written without
University of South Florida professor from China, Dajin Peng and head
of the university's Confucius Institute contacting him about a
situation he found himself embroiled in with the FBI. Apparently,
the professor had been approached to spy on his homeland. Weeks
before the FBI agent showed up on his doorstep, Peng was dismissed
pending investigation into allegations of inappropriate management of
the Confucius Institute. When the FBI agent approached him, she told
him that she had no influence over the university as to their actions
concerning his investigation but she she did comment that the
Confucius Institute was a hotbed for Chinese spies as it was funded
by the Chinese government, and the Chinese universities supplied most
of the staff. Left unsaid but insinuated was that Peng himself was a
spy. Peng strongly denied these allegations . The reader is provided
with more details of the twisting tale of Peng throughout the book.

For
junkies of espionage be it fiction or non-fiction, the book is
invaluable in understanding how the CIA and FBI as well as foreign
agencies work and how they have penetrated academia and infiltrated
almost every aspect of its culture. No doubt, much of what is
revealed will prove to be shocking but it is a story that must be
told if we are going to intelligently discuss and weigh competing
values of national security and academic freedom. As Golden states,
academics ignore espionage at their peril. He goes onto to assert:
“As long as American universities conduct vital research, place
alumni and faculty in upper echelons of government and business,
and-perhaps most important-remain a bastion of access and
international culture in a fearful, locked-down world, they will
attract attention from intelligence services. Ultimately, unless they
become more vigilant, spy scandals could undermine their values,
tarnish their reputations, and spur greater scrutiny of their
governance, admissions, and hiring.”